What is Rural Land For?
This field adjoins an established village in Cheshire. The landowner bought it with long term plans for housing development, for which it would be well suited: it isn’t designated or prone to flooding and it adjoins an existing housing estate within walking distance of the village centre, where there is a range of shops and local services. It’s a sought-after location.
In the past I've managed land like this on behalf of developers, arranging for the grass to be mown or grazed, trying to prevent unauthorised access by the general public and generally maintaining its value as a development site until the time is ripe for building.
This landowner has not managed the land in any active way for some time – there has been no agricultural activity and local residents use it daily for dog-walking. Nature, meanwhile, is just getting on with it. The blackthorn hedges are spreading outwards, brambles are encroaching along the fences and now oak trees are popping up through the grass, perhaps planted by jays and squirrels caching them for winter food supplies. The lack of grazing allows the young oaks get away quickly, despite the thick mat of grass. Ragwort and docks are thriving, but other wildflowers are starting to colonise the area too. It’s growing biodiversity, not homes.
And there’s the dilemma: what is the most valuable use for this block of land to our society today? Should it be used to build homes? Affordability is certainly an issue in this village, as it is in many places and of course these days we’d like those homes to be low carbon and energy efficient as well as affordable.
Or should this land be allowed to continue to grow biodiversity? It could be left to get on with it, the oak trees growing, the scrub encroaching and a few grassy paths maintained by the feet of the dog walkers, with birds, beetles and small mammals making it their home.
Others might suggest that it should be used for renewable energy generation to help society reach the Net Zero target; perhaps it could host solar panels to provide energy for the existing homes in the village. It could be used to grow food, of course, either in agriculture or at a more local scale as new allotments for the village. Or it could provide more formal opportunities for recreation.
Perhaps, with creativity and imagination, the land might deliver more than one of these uses, but we certainly need a debate, at a national and local level about how we want to use our land. Land is scarce and we need integrated land use strategies which help decision-makers to understand where the most beneficial places are for homes, workplaces, energy generation, food production and leisure, and where we should be protecting, enhancing and supporting nature.
A final thought: the landowner’s laissez-faire approach to management may have saved money in management fees over the past decade, but it could cost dearly if development is brought forward. Apart from potential challenges by locals that the land has become a Town or Village Green due to the recreational use, the biodiversity of the site has undoubtedly increased. This means that once the requirement to deliver 10% Biodiversity Net Gain is brought fully into effect in November 2023, this site is likely to start with a higher baseline assessment than it would have done if maintained in agricultural use. That could affect the cost and so the viability of the development scheme. Values may have shifted.
24th November 2022